TLDR 2023-06-05

Apple's highly anticipated AR/VR headset could push the technology to the mainstream. The AR industry will benefit from Apple's 'it just works' philosophy. While the exact uses for the headset are not known yet, Tim Cook has said before that AR is for communication and connection, and other reports say that the device will offer access to iPad apps, games, entertainment, and a version of Apple Fitness Plus. Apple is expecting to sell under a million units a year. Its release may result in a gold rush of app designers trying to replicate the success of early iPhone developers.

The Tensor chip has allowed Google to leverage its AI expertise and build experiences on the Pixel that would have otherwise been impossible. The Tensor G3, which will power the upcoming Pixel 8 series, will have 9 ARMv9 cores and new security technologies. The Pixel 8 will ship exclusively with 64-bit binaries. It will have a GPU with ray-tracing capabilities. Many more details about the new processor are available in the article.

A team at Nvidia created a bot called Voyager that uses GPT-4 to solve problems inside Minecraft. The bot uses GPT-4 to generate objectives and code that help the agent explore the game and improve its skill. It sees the state of the game directly via an API, so it doesn't play the game exactly like a human would. Voyager is able to build a library of code to learn the game over time. It can perform significantly better than other similar AI agents. Voyager shows the huge potential for language models to perform helpful actions on computers.

Scientists have repurposed human stomach cells into tissues that release insulin in response to rising blood sugar levels. The treatment showed long-lasting effects on diabetes in mice. The breakthrough could help people more naturally manage conditions such as type 1 diabetes. The process for creating the tissues isn't particularly complicated and the tissues can last for many months after being transplanted. There are several differences between human and mouse stomach tissue that need to be addressed in future studies, but initial signs are promising.

The Python SDK for PostgresML streamlines the development of scalable vector search applications on PostgreSQL databases. It offers tools for managing database tables related to documents, text chunks, text splitters, LLM models, and embeddings. The SDK features automated database management, embedding generation from open source models, and flexible and scalable vector search. It can be used for search, clustering, recommendations, anomaly detection, and classification apps.

The Java Development Kit 21 is due in September. There are 16 features officially proposed for it. The feature set is due to be frozen on June 8. JDK 21 will get five years of Premier support and extended support until September 2031. This article provides an overview of the specific proposals for JDK 21 so far.

The past year saw AI technology become more mainstream. The article looks at development made across key severity verticals and the factors that determine the success of startups in the space. AI has given rise to new interaction paradigms and capabilities. It has enabled new possibilities, but there is still a lot of work to be done to really unleash its potential. Startups have many opportunities to harness the power of AI to help solve customer problems.

Harvard's CS50 introductory course in computer science plans to use AI to grade assignments, teach coding, and personalize learning tips. Despite having more than 100 real-life teaching assistants, it has become difficult to fully engage with the growing number of students logging in from all over the world. The teaching team is now fine-tuning an AI system for the course. The team hopes that the AI will give human teaching assistants more time for in-person or Zoom-based office hours.

The hacking-for-hire business in India is prospering due to an abundance of inexpensive skilled labor and a tacit alliance with the government.

Amazon is negotiating with Verizon, T-Mobile, and Dish to offer a low-cost or possibly free nationwide mobile phone service to Prime subscribers.

vectorious is a linear algebra library that can be used for solving linear systems of equations, low-level BLAS routines, and machine learning.

A list of eight things learned in the first few months after transitioning to team lead that could be helpful for anyone looking to make the jump to the role.

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The Ruby SHell features aliases, syntax highlighting, tab completions, command suggestions, history, a full set of Ruby commands, and much more.

Emad Mostaque, the tech founder who claims credit for creating Stable Diffusion, has told many misleading stories to maneuver himself to the forefront of AI technology development despite having no formal experience in the field of artificial intelligence.